Insert clever tagline here

I’ve been homebrewing since 2009 and I have always been looking for ways to improve my brewing to turn out better beers. A yeast starter is a method of preparing your yeast for fermentation by introducing your yeast to a small amount of wort before fermentation in order to encourage yeast cell multiplication to create an optimum amount of healty, ready-to-go yeast cells for an ideal fermentation of your beer. (Brew365.com). I was getting ready to brew a Pumpkin Ale, which was a big hit last year, so I figured I would pick up a yeast starter kit at the same time and give it a try. The kit I purchased was the 2L Yeast Starter Kit from Midwest Supplies. The kit includes a 2L Erlenmeyer flask, stopper, airlock, 1 lb. dry malt extract, 2 oz. yeast nutrient, and instructions. I suplimented the instructions that came with the kit with a post I found on Brew365, Making a Yeast Starter.

Brew365 suggested measuring the malt extract by weight rather than using a measuring cup, so I measured out 3 oz on my kitchen scale.

For my Pumpkin Ale, which has an OG of 1.047, I used the Mr. Malty’s Pitching Rate Calculator™ to determine that a 1L starter would be enough. So I collected about 1L of water in my flask.

Added the malt extract and a tsp of yeast nutrient to the water.

I took the mixture over to the stove and brought it to a boil, while it was boiling I sanitized all the equipment and the yeast pouch to prevent infection.

Once the 15 minute boil was finished, I covered the flask with some foil and placed it in an ice bath to lower the temperature. (the black floaties in the water are from a minor boilover I had on the stove. Oops!)

Once the starter was cooled, I just waited until the outside of the flask was cool to the touch, I pitched the yeast and put on the stopper/airlock.

Over the next day my wife and I swirled the starter every once and a while to mix up the batch and encourage the yeasties to do their work. By brewday I had a healthy batch of yeast and I saw the start of fermentation after only a few hours.

The Pumpkin Ale will be ready by Thanksgiving. I’ll post some feedback on how it went with my first starter.

So, tomorrow I will be attempting my first All Grain Homebrew. I’ve built my Mash Tun, DIY Mash Tun, and I plan to follow an instructional video I found on Don Osborne’s YouTube channel…

The kit I will be making is an Irish Red from Northern Brewer.com. It calls for a 153° F mash for 60 minutes, and then a 170° F mash out for 10 minutes. From some suggestions on NB’s site, I have purchased an additional 1lb of malt to bump thinks up a bit.

I’ll take some pictures and post up my results after the Brew Day is done!

Lately the majority of my time as been consumed with my SRT situation. Now as things are settling down I have some more time to work on other hobbies. Up until now all of the homebrewing I have been doing has been from Extract Kits. Brewing with extract is okay, it’s much easier and faster, but the results are not as good as brewing from grain. So the next batch of beer that I will be making will be made completely from grain, with no extract used. However, in order to accomplish this I need one additional piece of equipment. A Mash Tun is a vessel that you use to mash the milled grain in order to create the wort that you will eventually boil to brew the beer. There are many options to obtaining/building a mash tun, most all of the homebrew supply sites and stores offer pre-built or kits for building one. With some searching online, I found an easy DIY solution that would get me into all grain brewing for little cash. I basically followed Don Osborune’s how to that is located on his site. Cheap and Easy Mash Tun. My cost was slightly higher than his, because I used a better cooler than he did.

Parts.
Coleman Xtreme 50-Quart Cooler on Wheels from Walmart
Approx 5′ of 3/8″ Tubing from Northern Brewer
Small Tubing Clamp from Northern Brewer
Braided Stainless Steel Supply Line from Lowes
Small Stainless Steel Worm Gear Clamps from My Garage (can be found on NB or at Lowes/HD)

Assembly.
Gather all of your parts, Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine is Optional.

Cut the ends off of the stainless steel braid. I used some pipe cutters I had, but a hacksaw would work well for this also.

Using needle nose pliers, remove the tubing inside the braid. Leaving a floppy stainless steel outside. Be careful not to prick yourself with the frayed ends.

Set the braid aside. Push the tubing through the drain in the cooler. I found it easier to go from inside out, vs outside in. Your mileage may vary based on what cooler you use.

Clamp the braid on the end of the tube inside the cooler. Fold the other end of the braid over itself a few times and clamp it closed.

Slide your tubing clamp up the outside tubing and place it an inch or two from the outlet of the cooler.

Wait for your significant other to leave, and then leak test your new Mash Tun.

I should be trying my first All Grain brew in the next couple weeks. I’ll update with my experience.

Damnit.

I noticed a chunk of metal in one of the stock wheels I’ve been rolling around on while my 5zigen fn01r-c’s are getting ready for powder. Luckily, Juan’s loaner wheels were available at the shop, Snail Motorsports so I ran over there and picked them up. Unfortunately, they’re painted black. So I got a great idea…

I thought it was kinda funny

I also realised that there has been quite a bit of car and tech talk on my blog lately, but no mention of beers. So I wanted to mention my beverage of choice while swapping my wheels around…

New Belgium Ranger IPA. At 70 IBUs its more bitter than most, but not overwhelming. ABV is on par for an IPA at around 6.5%. I first discovered it at Lee’s discount liquor, but then I noticed that my local Walmart sells it for about $7 a 6-pack.